Sewing Therapy

Something sort of weird happened yesterday. First a little background, though. I mostly sew on a 100 year old Singer treadle machine left to me by my grandmother and I sew buttonholes and hems and such by hand. At one point I had planned to do a lot of this the easy modern way on my electric machine even on the things I make on the treadle but it turns out my electric machine doesn't have a blind hem stitch (What?!!) and buttonholes are just way more fun and actually way easier (though slower) to do by hand.

So that's the background; here's what happened. For about two weeks I have had a pain in my right hand in the joint where the thumb joins the rest of the hand. You really don't appreciate what a useful thing a thumb is until yours is not functioning properly. But I'm stubborn about these things so I just kept trucking along, mostly still doing what I do, just a little more carefully, so when it came to time to do the buttonholes I did the buttonholes.

And after stitching six buttonholes by hand my hand had stopped hurting almost entirely! There's still a hint of an ache when I move it a certain way and I still feel inclined to do things carefully but wow. The difference is dramatic.

Now let me be clear, this is NOT a recommendation for alternative therapy. I just wanted to share what seems to me a slightly bizarre and puzzling scene from my life.